This is a list of weird, wacky, and other unusual stories that we found around the web. This is for July, 2021.
It’s another weird month on Freezenet. Let’s take a look at what we were able to find this month:
When Ya Gotta Go… 110MPH Edition
We’ve all been there. You really have to go to the bathroom at an inconvenient moment. Sooner or later, this is bound to happen. So, would you drive 110MPH for this reason? Well, one driver did:
An officer gave pursuit after the motorist traveled at a whopping 65 mph above the posted speed limit on Tuesday in Fairfield.
No one was hurt in the pursuit, which ended in a convenience store parking lot.
Police said the passenger went inside to use the restroom while the driver was arrested on charges of criminal speeding, operating after suspension and driving under the influence.
Urine trouble, mister!
$1 Short on Rent? That’s an Eviction
Sometimes, you might find yourself a little low on change. So, you have to reach back into your wallet to make up the difference. Well, that wasn’t an option for one woman who was evicted for being $1 short on rent:
Oak Bay resident Pamela Labrie says she was blindsided after she was evicted from her home this week for unknowingly being $1 short on rent for six months.
With Victoria’s tight rental market, Labrie said she has nowhere else to go.
“We’re going through really hard times right now and I have so many barriers,” she said.
Labrie, who is a single parent, legally blind and currently being treated for cancer, said being evicted from her home was the last thing she wanted to deal with.
“I went into the hearing and I was blindsided,” she said, adding that she the landlord, Frank Lui, would use any excuse to get her out.
Labrie said the missing cash was due to a bank service fee.
You have got to be kidding me.
“NBC Bay Area news crew held up at gunpoint during interview about Oakland crime”
If you want more than just the headline that pretty much says it all, here you go:
Midway through NBC Bay Area’s interview with Oakland’s head of violence prevention, Guillermo Cespedes, two robbers interrupted, holding up the crew and Cespedes. A “scuffle” took place, an Oakland police spokesperson told SFGATE, before a security officer with the news crew pulled out his own firearm and commanded the robbers to leave.
The incident took place Monday afternoon, shortly after Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong decried a city budget that reallocated an extra $18 million away from police out of a proposed police budget of $674 million. Those funds will be put into the city’s Department of Violence Prevention, helmed by Cespedes, who joined the department in 2020.
The department was formed in 2017 with a focus on “community-led intervention strategies” for violent crime prevention. The $18 million allocation was proposed by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, reported the East Bay Times.
A representative for Oakland police told SFGATE that the suspects in the case have yet to be identified.
I’m beginning to think that there might be crime happening in the Bay Area.
Typo on Water Tower
Typo’s can crop up anywhere. While some can be dismissed as a slip on the keyboard, some take a bit more effort. In this case, it was the Plover Wisconsin water tower that had the slight spelling mix-up:
PLOVER, Wis. (AP) — Painters are scrambling to fix a giant typo on the village of Plover’s water tower.
The Stevens Point Journal reports that crews repainting the tower on Thursday misspelled the village’s name as “Plvoer.”
Village Administrator Dan Mahoney said the painters accidentally reversed the templates used to paint the letters before raising them up to the tower. He said the mistake was quickly covered and repainting should be finished on Friday.
The mistake became the butt of jokes on social media, with people posts such as “Lvoe it!!” and “Big lvoer of it.”
The article goes on to say that some were suggesting that the typo remain because it made people laugh. I can see it because it certainly gave me a chuckle!
No Wifi in Your Vehicle? No Problem! Just Mount a Dish on the Hood!
Some of the features on vehicles are kind of amazing at times. This includes TV screens on the backs of seats, built in wifi, and even hot tubs filled with money that you can take guests to a local Dairy Queen in. Yes, that last one actually did happen. So, what would happen if your vehicle does not have wifi? What if you had a business that depended on wifi? Well, apparently, one driver in California decided that the perfect solution was to mount a Starlink dish to the hood of their car:
A California Highway Patrol officer stopped a Toyota Prius on Friday that had what looks like a Starlink dish fastened to its hood, the agency said in a Facebook post. The “visual obstruction,” sitting right smack in the middle of the car’s hood, landed the driver a ticket.
“Sir I stopped you today for that visual obstruction on your hood. Does it not block your view while driving?” an officer said, quoted in a post on CHP Antelope Valley’s Facebook page. The driver replied: “Only when I make right turns…”
The driver told the CHP officer that they were using the antenna to have Wi-Fi for a business they run out of their car, the agency told CNBC, which first reported on the traffic stop.
“Yes, it is in fact illegal to mount a satellite dish to the hood of your vehicle,” CHP’s Facebook post continued, citing a state law that bars other view-obstructions like objects hanging from a rear-view mirror, or poorly positioned GPS mounts. “It’s about safety folks. These are the real stories of the Highway Patrol. Safe travels everyone.”
Kind of hard to disagree with the assessment. That is pretty dangerous.
This… uh, Just In: We Are Live at the Scene Where My Car Has Been Stolen…
Some crimes get reported in the news. Others simply don’t. Apparently, one sure fire way to make sure your crime makes it into the news is to steal a reporters car:
Pittsboro, N.C. — The North Carolina State Highway Patrol confirms all four people involved in a high-speed pursuit in Chatham County from Saturday have been taken into custody.
Caleb Sheffield, the last person being sought from the case, was taken into custody on Sunday morning.
A third man wanted in connection to a high-speed chase in Chatham County on Saturday is also in custody after stealing a WRAL News car and crashing into a State Highway Patrol car.
WRAL reporter Keenan Willard said that the man, Marcus Brown, came up to him and photographer Lucas Nelson after their 11 p.m. live shot and offered cash for a ride to the gas station.
When Willard and Nelson said they couldn’t give him a ride, he jumped in the car and drove off on U.S. Highway 64.
Pretty hard to get much closer to the story then that.
Ever Get a Doordash Delivery from a Cop?
It was probably not the Doordash deliver the customer was expecting. A police officer knocked on a residence asking for the customers name. The probably confused customer acknowledged who she was. When the identity of the customer was confirmed by the cop verbally, he handed over a bag of food. He explained that her Doordash delivery driver was arrested, so he decided to deliver the food himself:
JONESBORO, Ark. – A Jonesboro police officer in Arkansas completed a DoorDash delivery after the original driver was arrested on June 30.
Bodycam video shared by the Jonesboro Police Department on Facebook shows an officer walking up to a home and knocking on the door.
An unidentified man answered the door and the officer is heard asking if someone named “Sherry” was at the residence.
The man then asked the officer if they wanted to speak to a woman inside, who appeared to be sitting in a chair in another room.
The officer peered inside and told the woman that she did not need to get up, however, he did inform her that her food delivery driver had been arrested and he was just completing the delivery.
“You’re Sherry? Alright, your DoorDash guy got arrested, so I brought your food to you,” the officer is heard saying in the video.
“Alright! Thank you, you’re awesome,” the woman inside the house replied as the officer laughed.
The delivery driver, who police identified as 22-year-old Justin Gist, was arrested for not having valid car insurance and for driving on a suspended license. He also had a warrant for his arrest after failing to appear in court for a previous charge, according to the incident report.
At the very least, Sherry has a heck of a story to tell after that one.
On Today’s Episode of “Rich People Problems”…
It’s hard to find good slave labour- er, help these days. Because some of these pesky people want to make this crazy thing called “a living wage”, some companies are having a hard time trying to fill those positions. This crisis has caused so many problems, at least one rich person had to do the unthinkable: mow his own lawn. The horror!
Hamptons residents and businesses are scrambling to find workers during the growing US labor shortage – and one said he had to take off his $800 sneakers to trim the weeds because a landscaper didn’t show up.
“I had to buy a lawnmower and cut my own lawn. I wanted flowers planted behind the pool. The landscaper didn’t show up. I had to do it myself,” one Hamptons resident told Vanity Fair. “My brother just showed me how to use the thing that trims the weeds. Yesterday, I finally did that. I had to take my $800 sneakers off first, but it was actually satisfying.”
A combination of soaring rents across Long Island, laws that crack down on shared houses, and a previous ban on visas for temporary workers has made it difficult for people to live and work in the area.
Local businesses such as restaurants and beauty salons say they can’t find enough workers to do the job.
Having to take off your $800 sneakers. The struggle is real!
Brandishing a weapon in front of high school students in a court setting… using foul language in a court setting… but enough about the judge!
A Winnebago County judge has been suspended after a list of incidences related to his behaviour in the court setting. As a result, he was suspended for a week:
MADISON (WLUK) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Winnebago County Judge Scott Woldt for seven days for conduct violations, it announced Tuesday.
The penalty, which includes a loss of pay, begins Aug. 2.
The complaint was filed against Woldt in June for six incidents, the earliest of which was in 2009. These were:
- Use of crude language during a family court hearing
- Displaying a handgun during a visit by high school students
- Use of crude language when speaking to a victim, and display of firearm
- Use of acerbic language directed at a defendant
- Use of crude language during a criminal hearing
- Encouraging a victim not to summon law enforcement when needed
The incident with the high school students happened on Jan. 25, 2016, during the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce’s Government Day event. During the students visit to the courtroom, he was asked about courthouse security. The judge explained due to the lack thereof, he carries a weapon and then briefly displayed a gun.
I’m going to take a wild guess and say that getting court room decorum is always going to be a bit more difficult when it’s the judge acting out.
Vote Cat 2021
The town of Omena, Michigan, is once again holding a municipal election. The candidates running, however, might not be so typical. The current incumbent goes by the name Sweet Tart – a Norwegian forest cat. Of course, other candidates include a chicken and a goat:
OMENA, MICH. — Mayor Sweet Tart McKee, the incumbent currently running for reelection in Omena, Mich., isn’t concerned about her competition this year.
But then again, Sweet Tart is a cat, so she’s not concerned about much of anything.
For more than a decade, the Northern Michigan hamlet of Omena — a small unincorporated community that does not have its own government — has held ceremonial elections for non-human mayors. The tongue-in-cheek triennial elections are fundraisers for the Omena Historical Society, with each dollar contributed to the organization equaling one vote. While all the critter candidates are from the community, anyone in the world can cast a ballot, in person or online, from now through July 23.
Ellen Shapiro, the historical society’s president, said these lighthearted elections were modeled after a similar practice in Rabbit Hash, KY, where a French bulldog named Wilbur currently serves as the tiny town’s mayor.
“People were just looking for something fun in politics,” she said. “Fun in politics is definitely hard to find.”
The hat and the necklace look surprisingly good on that cat.
“This Guy Sends His Girlfriend Photoshopped Photos Whenever She Asks If Their Kids Are OK”
Sometimes, Photoshop skills do come in handy
Kenny and his girlfriend have always had a humoristic approach towards both their relationship and parenting. After their daughter was born, whenever Kenny was looking after her on his own, his girlfriend would contact him asking if their little bundle of joy was doing OK. After a few of these queries, the dad developed quite the way to respond. With the help of his camera and Photoshop, Kenny began replying using pictures…
Definitely some good ones in there.
How Long Has That Pothole Been There Anyway?
Potholes are no fun for anyone. They damage tires, increase the risk of public safety, and downright unsightly. In Jackson Mississippi, one pothole has been there so long, tomatoes began growing in it:
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – They may not be edible, but there’s an impromptu new garden growing in the Fondren area of Jackson.
A pothole in the middle of Tyrone Drive has remained untouched for so long, there are tomatoes growing inside of it.
It’s unclear how long the pothole has been on the street, but several City of Jackson orange barrels are in the street so drivers know to avoid it.
Here I thought people liked community gardens.
Bad: You Suffer a Medical Emergency. Good: Ambulance Arrives to Take You to the Hospital. Bad: Ambulance Proceeds to Catch Fire.
It’s almost never good that you need an ambulance, but when you do, it can be easy to think that your medical problems might be in the beginning stages of ending. Probably the last thing that is on your mind is, “what if the ambulance catches fire?” Apparently, that actually happened:
Garner, N.C. — A New Hanover Regional Medical Center ambulance caught on fire on Interstate 40, near Garner, on Friday.
Fire officials said the ambulance was transporting a patient to Durham when the crew noticed a fire in the engine compartment of the vehicle.
Once they noticed the fire, the crew stopped, got the patient out of the vehicle and stopped traffic with the help of bystanders, according to officials.
A private ambulance nearby noticed the situation and stopped to help the patient.
Well that’s a pretty big string of bad luck right there.
“Fire Marshal’s Office investigating after 1 injured in Beaver explosion”
The headline actually makes sense, but chances are, you didn’t catch how the first time you read that. Beaver is the name of a city:
BEAVER, W.Va. — The state Fire Marshal’s Office is working to determine the cause of an explosion and fire that happened a lottery parlor in Raleigh County.
Mountaineer Gas crews responded to the incident Sunday night at Judy’s off Route 19 in Beaver.
A woman was treated for injuries Cabell Huntington Hospital’s Burn Intensive Care Unit after a partial collapse of the building. Her name and condition is unknown.
The cause of the explosion is believed to be from a gas leak, but it’s unknown what caused the build-up of natural gas.
Surprisingly, not a story from Canada.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
